1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer software. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for a computer-aided design (CAD) application to “flatten” three-dimensional representations of cable and wiring harnesses in CAD drawings.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term computer-aided design (CAD) generally refers to a broad variety of computer-based tools used by architects, engineers, and other construction and design professionals. CAD applications may be used to construct computer models representing virtually any real-world construct. Commonly, CAD applications are used to compose three-dimensional (3D) computer models and drawings of electrical wires and connectors harnesses that provide electrical connectivity for some device. For example, a CAD application may be used to create a 3D model of a wiring harness for components of an automobile engine or of the wiring within a personal computer or network hardware device.
Additionally, such models may be used to generate, assembly, engineering, and other documentation related to the modeled device. For example, 3D CAD models such as these may be used to generate two-dimensional (2D) layouts for the cable and wire harness designs modeled in the 3D CAD environment. Unlike projected views of typical 3D design data, cables and wires are ‘flattened’ to a “nailboard,” which provides a 2D representation of the wires included in the design of a wiring harness.
Often, a wiring harness includes segments where multiple wires are routed along a common path and segments where individual wires are routed along distinct paths. A “wire loop” occurs when a closed loop is formed by two or more wires are routed apart from one another in between common segments. Wire loops can range from a single wire loop to multiple wire loops to complex wire loops with multiple nested segments. When “flattening” a 3D wiring harness, it is important that the length of each wire in the 2D “flattened” representation be the same as modeled length of the wires in the 3D model. However, when “flattening” a complex wiring harness, currently available CAD application simply “cut” wires as needed to generate the flattened 2D nailboard representation. While this approach allows the dimensional lengths in the nailboard representation to be correct, it leaves users to manually determine the total length of the wire. Further, while accurately measuring the length, such a nailboard representation is not useful for manufacturing the actual wiring harnesses depicted by the CAD model and nailboard representation.
As the foregoing illustrates, there is a need in the art for teachings for generating a “flattened” 2D representation of a cable and wiring harness depicted in a 3D CAD model.